Creating messaging that goes deeper than a catchy tag line

Great tag lines are inspiring; they beckon you to buy their product. They help focus a buyer’s attention and are relatable. But creating messaging that resonates with your customers should go deeper and reflect a thoughtful process that creates a complete framework to guide your marketing, communications and decisions across the boards-both internally and externally before you create a tag line.

It all goes back to doing the heavy lifting to fully understand your product positioning, key benefits, unique value and sales propositions, target markets and tone or voice of the brand, before putting those catchy phrases together. There is no substitute for sound research.

Firstly understand what are your customer’s needs and wants. Have you done customer surveys, or audits? Talked to your customers? Gained feedback. You need to get inside the heads of your consumer audience to fully understand what motivates them to buy your product or service or what causes them to hesitate or turn away.

Consult your sales reps? Your sales team is on the front line. They should be able to provide input on your product or service and which pitches are the most effective. They will also be the ones to carry your messaging forward so it is important to involve them in the creation of your brand messaging.

Differentiate yourself from the competition. Of course, differentiating yourself from the competition is extremely important to create successful messaging. I might get in trouble with beer snobs for this, but most beer in the same category tastes fairly the same, therefore success in the beer market is based on brand experience and each brand has its own unique message—Molson- I am Canadian, Budweiser–the King of Beers. Notice nothing is said about the taste of the beer—beer marketers focus on the band experience. So whether there are clear differences or differences you need to create, ensure you value and sales propositions are unique.

Identify your tone of voice. Once you’ve done the research and due diligence the next step is to identity your tone of voice—edgy or soft and sexy? Human? Bold? I sometimes ask my clients to identify celebrities or newsworthy individuals that typify the voice and tone of their product.

State your brand promise. A colleague of mine that designs websites promises “websites that you can update yourself’. It’s reassuring and simple. Identity your target audiences—Similarly identify the benefits of your product—using concise sentences that could be used in headlines. And finally, use supporting information and examples that backup the benefits.

Once you’ve done all that—then its time to create that catchy tag line.